Despite his strong faith, the prophet Elijah - which you are very familiar with his life - experienced depression and wanted to die, even after God performed extraordinary miracles through him. So if God performed a series of extraordinary miracles in your life, and then not too long after that, do you think that you would become just so deeply discouraged that you want to die? It is hard to believe, is it not? Because we think, wow, if we saw the Red Sea miracle, well, that would last with us for a long time. Well, biblical history shows it did not last very long with the Israelites, did it?
Elijah had experienced one astonishing miracle after another, and God had sent ravens to feed him. Elijah, a widow, and her son were miraculously provided for during drought and famine, and Elijah even raised the widow's son from the dead. And then Elijah called down fire from heaven while confronting a group of idol worshippers who were antagonistic. Consequently, a spiritual revolution occurred throughout the nation.
After all this, the last thing we would expect is for Elijah to fall into depression, but he did. And he allowed himself to spiral down into despair to the point of desiring his death. And then we continue on in verse 4.
